This invention refers to a sealing device for a container of substances to be kept separate up to their dispensing.
There are presently containers on the market which allow keeping the substances they contain in a separate form up to their moment of usage, when they are mixed. This need often arises whenever some pharmaceutical materials are to be preserved, which would quickly lose their therapeutic effect if offered for sale in an already pre-mixed and ready-to-use form.
Such containers are usually equipped with a sealing device based on a hollow cap with a yielding extremity protruding from the container. This extremity can be pressed to allow a mushroom-shaped element to slide by gravity from a sealing position to an opening position of a chamber within the cap itself. The opening of the inner chamber releases the product contained in the same, so as to form the desired mixture.
The hollow cap is usually connected to the container by a threaded coupling, so as to allow opening the containers to use the product in the same, after the mixture has formed.
Other containers are known to be equipped with a sealing device designed to prevent its opening by a child, conventionally known as xe2x80x9cchild-proofxe2x80x9d. These containers are fitted with two caps, where an inner cap actually seals the container and is inserted inside an outer cap, on which a user may act to open the container. The two caps can be coupled by some male-female elements provided on the accessible portions of each cap, so that if the outer cap is turned to open the container, the latter turns idly on the inner cap, while if the outer cap is pressed and rotated with respect to the inner cap, the male-female elements are coupled to allow opening the container.
The conventional sealing devices for containers of substances to be kept separate until dispensing are not produced with a child-proof sealing device. This implies that a child may by a playful accident form the mixture and subsequently drink it, with some unpleasant consequences.
It should also be added that the sealing devices for containers of substances to be kept separate until dispensing present the yielding extremity of the cap, which is capable of being pressed to generate a mixture, in a freely accessible form, unprotected by safety devices to prevent it from being pressed in an accidental manner. Such a circumstance could in fact occur where several containers happen to be piled one on top of the other with the bottom of one resting on the cap of the other, or where other objects may accidentally happen to press on the yielding extremity of the caps.
The purpose of this invention is to eliminate the mentioned drawbacks, by producing a sealing device for a container of substances to be kept separate until dispensing, capable of implementing both the function of separating the products to be mixed as well as the function of providing a child-proof seal.
A further purpose of the invention is to produce a sealing device for a container of substances to be kept separate until dispensing, capable of preventing the formation of the mixture as a result of some accidental events.
Not the last purpose of the invention is to create a sealing device for a container of substances to be kept separate until dispensing which is essentially simple, safe and reliable.
These and other purposes according to this invention, are achieved by producing a sealing device for a container of substances to be kept separate until dispensing. The sealing device of the invention comprises at least one inner cap and an outer cap inserted on said inner cap, wherein said inner cap has a cavity forming a chamber capable of containing a first product and said chamber is sealed by a sealing element, said chamber having a controlled opening which allows said first product contained in said chamber and a second product held in said container to form a mixture; said inner cap having at least one internally threaded element for coupling with a corresponding threaded portion of said container and for engaging with said outer cap by male-female elements which are arranged on said inner cap and on said outer cap, said inner cap being rotatable by exerting as force which acts on said outer cap to open container. Other characteristics and advantages of the sealing device according to this invention are defined in the subsequent claims.
The sealing device according to the invention may advantageously be mounted on containers of any shape or material; the device may further be utilized to mix both liquid and powdered products. However, the product held in the container is usually liquid, while that contained in the sealing device is a powder.
The characteristics and advantages of a sealing device for a container of substances to be kept separate until dispensing according to this invention will become more clearly evident from the description that follows, offered for exemplifying and non-limiting purposes and with reference to the simplified attached drawings, in which: